For the Indian climate crusaders, 2007 has become more important for three reasons. First, the entry of climate change as an agenda item to the United Nations Security Council on April 18. Now, the Nobel Peace Prize to the scientific community - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former US Vice-President Al Gore for making people aware of climate change. It’s argued that the issue would become everybody’s business to know, manage and resolve after the prestigious award.
There has been much ado over the neutral expert’s verdict on the Baglihar Hydel Project (BHP). For over sixteen years, the 450 Mega Watt (MW) BHP on the Chenab River in the Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir has been the bone of contention between India and Pakistan. After holding five meetings – in Paris, Geneva, London, Paris & Washington; visiting the project site, including its hydraulic model at Roorkee University and examining the written and oral submissions made by both parties, the final report of the neutral expert has given the BHP the ‘go ahead’.
The world’s biggest economies are set to prepare for massive investments in nuclear energy. The most elusive energy, which was discarded in the 1992 Earth Summit as ‘not safe and sound’ energy, has been touted as the best alternative for the energy-crunch world in the recently concluded Group of Eight (G- 8) Summit meeting at St. Petersburg, Russia. After shock waves of the Three Miles and Chernobyl accidents, the nuclear energy is back to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, the root cause of climate change.
The shift in the global energy matrix in favour of hydrocarbons has posed many serious issues, including environmental concerns. It is precisely because of these adverse consequences that Natural gas has been accepted as the preferred fuel for the present century. Unlike other fossil fuels, it is one of the cleanest, safest, and most useful energy sources.